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The Occasion of Macflecknoe
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
As a result of recent investigations, states Professor Borgman, “the old explanation of this satire [MacFlecknoe] as Dryden's answer to Shadwell's The Medal of John Bayes is no longer sound.” In 1918, Mr. Thorn-Drury called attention to the following passage, which appeared in an attack on Shadwell in The Loyal Protestant and True Domestick Intelligence of Thursday, February 9, 1681/2:
- … He would send him [Shadwell] his Recantation next morning, with a MacFlecknoe, and a brace of Lobsters for his Breakfast; All which he knew he had a singular aversion for. …
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1932
References
1 Borgman, A. S., Thomas Shadwell: His Life and Comedies (New York, 1928), p. 49. Mark Van Doren, in his The Poetry of John Dryden (New York, 1920), pp. 339–350, gives a summary of this discussion.
2 In “Dryden's MacFlecknoe. A Vindication,” MLR, xiii, 280.
3 See Smith, David Nichol, Dryden: Poetry and Prose With Essays by Congreve, Johnson, Scott and others (Oxford, 1925), p. 188.
4 Snyder, F. B., and Martin, R. G., A Book of English Literature (New York, 1925), p. 975. Lieder, P. R., Lovett, R. M., and Root, R. K., British Poetry and Prose: A Book of Readings (New York, 1928), p. 428. Cross, T. P., and Goode, C. T., Heath Readings in the Literature of England (New York, 1927), p. 1266.
5 Op. cit., p. 189.
6 Dates so given are dates of publication.
7 The Complete Works of John Dryden, ed. Scott and Saintsbury, Edinburgh, 1882–93. See Shadwell in the general index. References to Dryden's prose are to this edition.
8 Gray, W. F., The Poets Laureate of England: Their History and Their Odes (London, 1914), pp. 85–86.
9 Op. cit., pp. 347–348.
10 Op. cit., pp. 38–51.
11 See prefaces to The Sullen Lovers, The Humourists, and The Lancashire Witches; the dedications to The Virtuoso and A True Widow; and the prologue to Bury-Fair.
12 See preface and prologue to The Royal Shepherdess, preface to The Libertine, and prologues to The Square of Alsatia and The Scowrers.
13 Preface to Psyche.
14 Op. cit., p. 43.
15 Works, ii, 292.
16 Works, iii, 242–43.
17 Op. cit., p. 41.
18 Edition of 1720, i [pp. 122–123]. All quotations from Shadwell are from this edition, and henceforth references will be given merely by volume and page. I have examined Montague Summers's edition (The Complete Works of Thomas Shadwell, London, 1927), but have not access to it at the present time.
19 Op. cit., p. 43.
20 Ibid., p. 48.
21 One might add that this reference throws no light on the state of Dryden's feelings.
22 Op. cit., pp. 49–50. The threat of condemning dullness had been made in the preface to An Evening's Love (iii, 253).
23 Works, iv, 375.
24 These details are pointed out by W. Forbes Gray, op. cit., pp. 62–63. Summers argues (op. cit., i, ciii) that Shadwell had very little to do with the attack on The Empress of Morocco.
25 For discussions of the authorship of the operatic Tempest see the Cambridge edition of Dryden (1908), pp. 1031, 1032; Anglia, xxvii, 205–217, and xxix, 539–541; N. & Q., 10th S., ii, 329, 330; RES, i, 327–330; ii, 463–466, iii, 204–208, 451–453.
26 ii, [p. 8].
27 Ibid., [p. 9].
28 Works, v, 195–96.
29 Dryden had said: “For Ben Jonson, the most judicious of poets, he always writ properly, and as the character required; and I will not contest farther with my friends, who call that wit: it being very certain, that even folly itself, well represented, is wit in a larger signification. …” (iv, 237.)
30 ii, [p. 292].
31 A difficult point is the prologue which Dryden wrote for Shadwell's A True Widow, acted in 1678. Would Dryden have written this prologue for a man whom he was about to satirize? One could argue that the writing of prologues was a business with Dryden, and that this prologue contains no word of praise of Shadwell or of the play to which it is attached. But a simpler and more plausible explanation can be given. No doubt Dryden furnished Shadwell with this prologue before he had seen the dedication to The History of Timon of Athens, the Man-Hater. Though the play had been acted in December, 1677, or January, 1677/8, it was not published until 1678. By the time that Dryden became aware of the insult in the dedication, Shadwell had already secured the prologue for A True Widow, which G. R. Noyes says was probably acted March 21, 1678. See the Cambridge edition of Dryden (1908), p. 83.
32 “Dryden not the Author of ‘MacFlecknoe,‘” MLR, xiii, 25 ff.
33 Quoted by Mr. Borgman, op. cit., p. 49 n, from G. Thorn-Drury's note, “The Date of MacFlecknoe,” RES, i, 187–190. The evidence is the absence of reference to Shadwell's religious and political leanings and the sneering allusion to Herringman in 1.104.
34 Op. cit., p. 49 n. He also says on the same page: “The time of composition was doubtless between the production of A True Widow, late in 1678, and November, 1681.”
35 Op. cit., p. 340.
36 The title of the 1682 edition of MacFlecknoe refers to T. S. (Thomas Shadwell) as “The True-Blew-Protestant Poet,” but G. Thorn-Drury (MLR, xiii, 279) and Mark Van Doren (op. cit., pp. 339–340) have shown that the 1682 edition was unauthorized by Dryden), and Van Doren has pointed out the fact that the first authorized edition of the poem, that of 1684, does not contain this reference to Shadwell's religion and politics.